MDHHS awards $500,000 to MSU for Flint registry planning

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services has awarded a one-year grant of $500,000 to the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine for the planning of a registry for Flint residents.

The intent of the registry will be to identify, track and support Flint water crisis victims.

One of the Flint Water Advisory Task Force recommendations included the creation of a registry for the long-term tracking of residents exposed to Flint water from April 2014 to present.

Through this planning grant, MSU College of Human Medicine and the MSU-Hurley Children’s Hospital Pediatric Public Health Initiative, led by Mona Hanna-Attisha, assistant professor of pediatrics and director of the pediatric residency program at Hurley Children’s Hospital in Flint, will continue working with many community partners, including the Greater Flint Health Coalition.

“Much feedback has already been gathered from Flint residents and stakeholders about how to implement a registry that truly works to better assist residents in ensuring they receive the services they need,” said Nick Lyon, director of MDHHS. “This planning grant is an important next step in the development of this registry and I am confident that MSU will establish a solid foundation for the registry moving forward.”

MSU’s proposal to build the registry includes significant capacity building and planning in the domains of information technology, team creation, community participation, scientific advising, legal support and partnership development with delineation of roles and responsibilities.

To address these, the registry planning will be divided into two phases:

Phase II of registry planning: identify and begin to develop infrastructure required for the registry as well as the case management/resource linkages; develop processes for linkage of pre- existing cohorts and environmental data sets; develop guidelines for how registry data will be protected and utilized once operationalized; and develop process for ongoing registry operation and maintenance.

Of the $500,000, MSU will receive $450,000 for its work and $50,000 will be set aside for a liaison position between the planning team and MDHHS. MSU will immediately begin work on the planning phase of the registry.